On Wed, Apr 1, 2009 at 14:06, Casey Brown cbrown1023.ml@gmail.com wrote:
Yes, that's a sad reality. :-( Wikipedians respond too crazily to COIs... what we usually suggest is that people don't tell others that they have first-hand knowledge. :-)
Here is dmoz.org's policy on insider editors:
"The ODP exists as a non-commercial, end-user resource created by Web users for Web users. We do not bar editors with business affiliations, since those editors with their own sites usually know their competition and related sites better than anyone. This knowledge can be ideal for helping build an authoritative directory."
Does Wikipedia have something similar?
In the end, it should matter what is written and how it's supported -- not who wrote it.
This idea sounds great. Is there a policy or rule for it?
I'm asking because in the same [[Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/MojoMojo]], users of this FOSS pitched in with various arguments, and were flagged as:
"[[User:foo]] has made few or no other edits outside this topic."
I find this detrimental to Wikipedia because it means that only established Wikipedia users should edit a specialized article (or talk about its deletion). But in the vast majority of cases, FOSS developers are focused on development and don't even have a Wikipedia account. The above flag then effectively muzzles the voices of those who know, in favor of those who have made many edits but have little particular experience in the subject matter.